The newly expanded Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark in the Big Horn Mountains was celebrated by Native Americans and other well-wishers on Friday.At a rough count, 130 were in attendance at Porcupine Ranger Station, just a few miles — as the crow flies — from the wheel.

There are two kinds of forces affecting your health. Some can be seen and measured. Those are called sekala. Other forces cannot be seen or measured, but they nevertheless affect you. In that sense, they are “real”. Those are called niskala. A balian, or traditional healer, explained it to me like this: “The tree moves, because of the wind. But you can’t see the wind. The wind is like niskala.”

PORT MADISON INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. — There were no protests and not much politics when the Suquamish Tribe quietly confronted one of the most tender social issues of the day. This spring, a young woman stood up at the tribe’s annual meeting on its reservation here on Puget Sound and asked it to formally approve same-sex marriage. The response from the 300 or so people present was an enthusiastic “yes” in a voice vote. There was no audible dissent.

PORCUPINE – Russell Means has looked death in the face before.The former American Indian Movement leader counts nine assassination attempts on his life. He has survived danger, violence and numerous encounters with mortality -- from the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation to guerilla wars in Nicaragua -- in what he calls his “72 winters” of life.